1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle body floor structure for an automobile, in which a rear edge of a dashboard lower panel and a front edge of a front floor panel are connected on a joint line extending in a vehicle width direction, an outer edge in the vehicle width direction of each of the dashboard lower panel and the front floor panel is connected to a side sill extending in a front-rear direction, and a floor frame extending in the front-rear direction is connected to the dashboard lower panel and an upper surface of the front floor panel on a side inward of the side sill in the vehicle width direction.
2. Description of the related art
There is a concern that when an automobile is involved in a narrow offset frontal impact, a large impact load is inputted from one of left and right front side frames to a front portion of one of left and right side sills, and a vehicle compartment space is made narrow because the front portion of the side sill deforms in such a way as to fall toward the inside in a vehicle width direction.
Addressing such concern, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-237636 discloses a known structure in which a diagonal member extending diagonally rearward and toward an inner side in a vehicle width direction from a front end of a side sill is connected to a floor frame. With such structure, a load which tends to cause the side sill to fall toward the inside in the vehicle width direction is transmitted to the floor frame through the diagonal member, and the fall of the side sill is prevented by reaction force which the diagonal member receives from the floor frame.
Incidentally, a rear edge of a dashboard lower panel and a front edge of a front floor panel are spot-welded to each other while superposed on each other along a joint line extending in the vehicle width direction. Here, waterproof treatment for applying a dust sealer to the joint line is necessary in order to prevent water from entering the inside of a vehicle compartment from a gap between welding points.
However, the known structure described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-237636 mentioned above has a disadvantage that since the diagonal member disposed in the diagonal direction crosses over the joint line, work for applying the dust sealer to the joint line is hindered by the diagonal member.